One of the most ambitious and intelligent films of
the year
was The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby. Written and directed by
first-time feature filmmaker Ned Benson, the filmmaking was bold,
original, and
unusual compared to other contemporary dramas. Benson ended up with a
concept
which was explored in a truly unique way. The Disappearance of
Eleanor Rigby
was constructed as a two-part feature film experience which audiences
could
watch back-to-back (without a specific viewing order).
When the film received it's limited theatrical run Benson even left it
open to
theater owners to decide the order of the experience.No
matter which film was projected first
audiences were in for one of the most daring and inventive dramatic
narratives
of the year.

The resulting films in this experiment were
entitled The
Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Him and The Disappearance of
Eleanor
Rigby: Her. Audiences might be quick to think this is some kind of Rashomon
construction in which multiple perspectives are shown between a
romantic relationship
with an attempt to find truth between the characters. Contrary to
audience expectations,
the division of The
Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby is actually about showing how events
surrounding a traumatic experience affect two different (but connected)
people
in remarkably different ways. Each film primarily focuses on one
character and their
immediate life (without the other person around in their day-to-day
experiences anymore).

A horrible life event occurs which significantly
impacts the
relationship of the central characters. To note what this event is
would be to
spoil some of the mystery. Conor (James McAvoy) tries to recover from
what
happened to them by moving his life forward as best as he possibly can.
Eleanor
(Jessica Chastain) withdraws into herself and starts to move backwards
as she
has a difficult time trying to cope with what happened. Him
explores the
events that happen to Conor directly and his point of view of the
experience. Her
explores the events happening directly to Eleanor and her perspective.
In each
film, viewers are seeing different experiences which occurred to Conor
or Eleanor
respectively as well as some fragments of moments which are pulled from
their
memories together. The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby aims to
more fully
explore both of these characters as a result.

One interesting filmmaking decision in making the
two parts
was the way the filmmaking focused on memory. Without making things
dramatically different, the script finds ways (throughout the two
parts) to
show minor differences between shared events. One small experience can
have a
slightly different playback in memory. During Him, memories are
Conor's.
In Her, memories are Eleanor's. Audiences can then see how
similar but
slightly different each one remembers different moments shared
together. Neither
one of them is technically portrayed as incorrect as the events are
largely the
same. This aspect of the production is mainly used to explore the ways
in which
memory can sometimes work. Production-wise, this is reflected in slight
changes
to the scene set-up and little things like the clothing the actors are
wearing
during scenes. (It is important to note that these are intentional
alterations and are not
continuity issues.)

Chastain's approach to making these films was to
play the
role of Eleanor as she "really was" in Her while the version
of Eleanor presented in Him is a reflection of Conor's
perception of how
she is. In doing so, Chastain delivers one of her best performances to
date.
This was a smart approach by Chastain and it makes the slight changes
in her
performance more compelling. Academy voters should have taken note of
her superb
performance and given a nomination. Unfortunately, voters were probably
confused
about how to even nominate the performance between the co-existence of
three
different films. McAvoy didn't perform his role as dramatically
different in
the same sense but he kept his performance lower-key during Her,
which
allowed for more of an emphasis on her character's experiences. Both
actors do
a tremendous job of creating believable characters throughout the two
original
films and were instrumental to the success of the filmmaking.

Viewers might wonder why the film is even titled The
Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby. Is it something referencing the
famous Beatles
lyrics? What is the disappearance? The film does directly answers the
question
of the character's name and the "disappearance" in the title is a
definite
double meaning referring to Eleanor leaving Conor's life following
their
relationship issue and because of her personal withdrawal. Conor seems
to be a
much more outward person whereas Eleanor is someone who looks inward
more
directly.

When the Weinstein company purchased the
distribution rights
a third film was requested which would combine the two films into one
narrative. Essentially, the Weinstein's wanted to release a more
conventional
film experience which audiences could buy one ticket for (and see just
one
movie). Director Ned Benson again worked with editor Kristina Boden to
form another
film version. The result was The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby:
Them (which
is comprised of scenes from both versions).

For Them, in the scenes where slightly
alternate
versions were presented, a selection was made between Him and Her
to decide which one to use for this release. Other editing techniques
were also
used to combine events. (For example, the last scene of Them mainly
used
footage from Him but interjected a few seconds of footage from Her).
Benson and Boden did a good job of picking footage that was more
important to
streamlining the story. Unfortunately, the one-film version is easily
the
weakest of the three and it loses a lot of the impact that is felt from
watching both Him and Her together. Them feels
as if it is
incomplete in comparison to Him and Her. It's no
surprise as this
version loses almost an hour and a half of footage. Them
makes for a nice conclusion to the
overall experience of watching these three different films but it
shouldn't be
considered as a genuine substitute for experiencing Him and Her.

It's rather impressive to realize
that this is the feature film debut
of writer/director Ned Benson. Benson originally envisioned this as a
one-film
project but Jessica Chastain came up with the idea of making two
separate films
exploring the characters on a more intimate level. It was a brilliant
move and
one which Benson managed to bring to realization remarkably well. This
effort
and experience would not be the same without the various versions. Him and Her are quality films
individually but a part of a great artistic
achievement together. As a director, Benson manages to allow the focus
to be on
the actors. Though the screenplay is strong throughout this is a
actor's vehicle
with a lot of the best cinematic moments arriving because of the
performances. Benson films with an intimate
style that
allows the actors to shine.

The cinematography by Chris
Blauvelt (The Bling Ring) is beautiful to behold. A significant
part of the visual success comes from
the colorful aesthetic delivered within happier memories between the
characters
and from that palette's shift to a darker and gray color palette of
their
current-day gloominess and despair. Blauvelt certainly enhances the
visual
style of the film triumphantly. This is a visually superb effort by a
noteworthy
cinematographer.

Accompanying the filmmaking style
is the editing of the motion-picture.
With accomplished editor Kristina Boden working on the project as the primary
editor of all three versions,The
Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby is largely successful
because of Boden's efforts editing the material into three cohesive
films that
work separately but are more effective when they are viewed together.
Boden
started with editing Him before proceeding to edit Her
and ended
the experience on the project when crafting (alongside director Benson)
the
studio-mandated Them. Boden's editorial eye is
exquisite and she makes The
Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby something students should
consider of
vital importance to see. The editing approach will certainly makes one
think
more about structure and editing and how these elements can change the
impact and
dynamics within a film.

Boden's editing on this project was a massive
undertaking
that was much more complicated than what an editor would have to
typically do
on a film project. She had to find a way to balance the storytelling
and keep
events in check between versions. Scenes specific to one version (and
not the
other) had to be kept together without getting mixed into the other
versions. Boden
should have received a nomination for Editing at the Academy Awards but
was
likely an oversight as voters probably had no idea how to recognize the
effort
amidst the existence of three separate versions.

The Disappearance of
Eleanor Rigby won't appeal to
everyone. Seeing a film that practically requires one to view three
different
versions to get the best experience out of the material is something
that some
audiences might find daunting. However, for anyone who finds this a
fascinating
concept The Disappearance of Eleanor
Rigby should be considered a must-see. Ultimately, the goal of the
work is
not so much to entertain an audience as it is to find new directions in
which to
be contemplative about the nature of relationships and memories. If
experiencing an experimental dramatic arthouse film sounds appealing,
then
viewing The Disappearance of Eleanor
Rigby should definitely prove to be rewarding.

The Blu-ray:

Video:

The Disappearance of
Eleanor Rigby - Him,
Her, and Them sport relatively exceptional
transfers on Blu-ray. Each
presentation is in the original theatrical exhibition ratio of 2.40:1
and each version of the film is similar when it comes down to
the 1080p HD encode quality. Color, contrast, and depth are impressive
throughout each
film. The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby had
a DCP and the photography benefits from its digital sheen and modern
gloss. The
image sports the often bleak cinematography style of Christopher
Blauvelt effectively. This is a pleasantly produced modern creation and
the high quality
digital photography is a good fit for the filmmaking. The
Blu-ray presents the cinematographer's stylistic flourishes
faithfully.

Audio:

The audio aspect of this release is
trickier to consider when compared
to the image quality of the films. The Weinstein Company has decided to
release
The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby - Them
with an impressive DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround sound
presentation
which has crisp highs, strong dialogue clarity, and good (occasional)
surround
activity with a noteworthy vibrancy befitting the lossless audio
quality boost.
On the flip-side, the director's original films (Him
and Her) are both
presented together on one separate Blu-ray disc and the audio is not as
impressively rendered as a result.

While the picture quality was kept
closely in-place between the three
films, because both Him and Her are
presented together (instead of
separately) on a second disc, the disc had to make a compromise to
accommodate
for them both being on only one disc. That alteration was to not
include
lossless audio for the original two films.

In place of
lossless audio for Him and Her,
viewers will instead find a standard Dolby Digital 5.1 surround
sound presentation which is DVD quality audio lacking the vibrancy that
the
re-edited version maintains. This is disappointing given that the
director's
original aim was for audiences to see both Him
and Her parts and not the re-edited
version. The fact that the only version getting a lossless audio
presentation
is the short version seems like an oversight. If the release of The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby had
simply been three-discs instead of two each version of the story could
have
been equally impressive in presentation quality.

If there is a silver lining to the
way this release has been handled,
it's that many of the scenes are dialogue-heavy and music and
surround activity is kept relatively sparse. Many viewers might not
mind losing some fidelity as much during these dialogue-heavy scenes.
Even so,
I think the studio should have provided the filmmakers original
versions with
lossless audio so that there would be a little extra smoothness,
clarity, and
depth. In those scenes where surrounds are utilized (such as inside the
dance
club and during the scenes taking place amidst the rainy outdoors) Him and Her lose some audio fidelity
that should not have been comprised
simply for the sake of manufacturing one less disc.

English SDH (for the deaf and hard
of hearing) and Spanish subtitles
are provided.

Extras:

Even though
retailers are advertising this release as coming with UV codes, the
copy I
received included no such codes and only included the discs. It seems
as though
the release plans either changed (and details were not updated) or
early copies
are affected by a manufacturing error where these codes are not being
provided
with the release. If this will affect your purchase decision (though I
hope it
won't), keep it in mind.

The Weinstein
Company seems to consider the director's original version a
supplemental feature
to the re-edited Them version. Even
opening the case, buyers will immediately notice that a bold "Bonus
Disc" label has been attached to the Him/Her
disc. I don't think this makes much sense given that these two films
represent
the original version intended by the director and producers, and as
they still
stand as the superior way to experience the story.

If you only watch Them
and not Him and Her, you lose
almost an hour and a half of content, as well as a much different
approach to
the flow and emphasis of the story. You also lose out on a lot of
material with
supporting cast members (with scenes that dramatically added a lot of
extra
heft to the story). Many supporting characters are overlooked in Them as the big emphasis is on the
sequences primarily featuring Conor and Rigby.

On the same disc as
The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Them
is a Q&A with Jessica Chastain and James McAvoy (1080p, 21 min.)
about all
three films. It's a delightful bonus feature and the two provide some
good
insights into their process making the film, it's production history,
and the
importance of viewing the two-film version. They also generally have a
good
time together and it's a breezy interview with good audience questions
and interaction.

Final Thoughts:

The Disappearance of
Eleanor Rigby should be required
viewing for film students. It's a film which will appeal to anyone who
appreciates
quality dramatic storytelling but those who take particular interest in
the way in which a story is crafted
cinematically will enjoy the film more because of the three version: Him, Her,
and Them. Each presents a slightly different
tone, feel, and rhythm. All of them work as standalone or separate
films but
are enhanced by viewing all versions. To view Him and
Her together (in
either order) is to experience something profound and overwhelming. To
follow
that experience with Them is to reach
a even greater appreciation of the storytelling. To only view Them would be to lose out on a lot of
the meaning, depth, and significance within the journey audiences are
taken on by
The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby.

The Weinstein
Company has released all three versions on Blu-ray together and the
quality of
the package is quite good overall (even if lossless audio is missing
from the Him/Her version). Fans of intelligent
dramas (and actors Jessica Chastain and James McAvoy) should consider
it well worth
looking into.